Thesis (M.A.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on April 15, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-56).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Bayreuth. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-315) and index.

This thesis is constructed between a double argument. The first is a feminist argument that the female body may be viewed as a tool for cultural reinscription against dominant structures of subjectivity and representation that have rendered women the common flesh of art, without recourse to their own representational economy. Secondly, it is argued that the female body can never be recuperated as an essential, original form. That is, there is no essential female body or nature to be represented. In this sense, the body is artificial, or not natural, and so can be re-presented, specifically in feminist performance art, in order to rework radically the relationship between language, subjectivity and desire. The research undertaken is genealogical and also looks towards the future: deconstructing the historical imperatives that have produced 'the female body' and suggesting ways in which feminist performance art may redefine the ways in which female flesh is represented. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Using a framework of feminism and poststructuralism, this thesis aims to interrogate the utilisation of the body as a contested site of struggle for meaning in contemporary theatre dance in South Africa. "Both feminism, as a politics, and dance, as a cultural practice, share a concern for the body" (Brown, 1983: 198). A feminist analysis of dance can offer a tool to interrogate the dominant discourses of gender and race that surround and permeate both the female and male body in contemporary theatre dance. The body is not a neutral site onto which cultural codes and conventions are inscribed, as the dancer's body is always marked in the physical sense of gender and race. This thesis aims to decode the body and examine how the discourses of gender and race are embodied by the moving body on stage - specifically in the South African (KwaZulu-Natal) context. By a feminist appropriation of the poststructural endeavour, this research will look at how the body, as discourse, can be interrogated to examine how the interconnected discourses of gender and race surround and permeate the moving body. The utilisation of a poststructural paradigm will aid in the examination of how the dominant discourses of gender and race are hegemonically imposed onto the body. Poststructuralism also offers an understanding that there exist counter-discourses that have the ability to resist the dominant discourses of gender and race. This notion becomes important to the study of contemporary theatre dance as an art form. This thesis will examine how South African (Durban-based) contemporary theatre dance choreographers explore the body's potential to be subversive in performance. The thesis will focus on the body's ability to interrogate the discourses that operate in its surroundings and permeate its lived reality. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Care can be defined as a set of relational practices that foster mutual recognition, growth, protection, empowerment, and human community, among others (Gordon et al., 1996). This study investigates the practices of care in the context of the curatorial creation of collaborative arts engagements. The recent proliferation of partnerships between artists and communities has revealed that, in some instances, such relationships have not been productive or supportive. This raises questions about how curators and artists embed ethical commitments into their planning and whether their relational practices foster care. Informed by Ethics of Care theory, Relational Aesthetics, and feminist scholarship as derived from the fields of leadership, psychology, and higher education, an interview-based cross-case approach was utilized to examine the Ethics of Care praxis within participatory art engagements. Six art practitioners were interviewed for this study to reveal their common experiences relating to care and explore how this relates to the background and curatorial work of the researcher. Data were collected through interviews and the researchers’ photographic reflection journal. It is argued that the findings expand the definition of ethical, collaborative relations within artistic co-creations. They also highlight the need to embrace discomfort, set boundaries to inform reciprocity, and provide a sense of belonging within Holistic Communities of Practitioners.

Text in English / This study aims to apply the biopolitical theories of Giorgio Agamben on homo sacer to the stereotypical representation of the violent woman. Using feminist methodologies for dismantling and exposing social stereotypes, this research explores the relationship between femininity, violence and the representation of these. By focussing on the influence of traditional narratives as found in ancient mythology and fairy tales, the study investigates the contemporary portrayal of the stereotypical violent woman using acts of dismemberment and dispossession in the work of Quentin Tarantino and Nathalie Djurberg, which serve as examples of the controversial relationship between real and filmic violence. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

Text in English / This study aims to apply the biopolitical theories of Giorgio Agamben on homo sacer to the stereotypical representation of the violent woman. Using feminist methodologies for dismantling and exposing social stereotypes, this research explores the relationship between femininity, violence and the representation of these. By focussing on the influence of traditional narratives as found in ancient mythology and fairy tales, the study investigates the contemporary portrayal of the stereotypical violent woman using acts of dismemberment and dispossession in the work of Quentin Tarantino and Nathalie Djurberg, which serve as examples of the controversial relationship between real and filmic violence. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M. A. (Art History)